Double take

AURORA — The public address announcer at Legacy Stadium called high school athletics the best show in town.

For the past two years, Greeley West has been the star of the highest rated show in the state.

Even though the Spartans were a little delayed in opening the curtain Tuesday night and turned to a new act, their encore performance was one to remember.

The Spartans became the first team in West history to win back-to-back Class 4A state titles when they rallied down 1-0 in the first half to beat Broomfield 2-1 with goals from Taryn Hemmings and Amanda Schweers.

West defeated Mullen last year in overtime to become the first West soccer team to win a championship.

They’re already thinking even bigger.

Recommended Stories For You

“We want to try for the three-peat,” junior midfielder Madie Prather said. “There are four or five teams that have won back-to-back titles, but no one has ever won three.”

As usual, West kept the fans on the edge of their seats, waiting for the big moment that would break open the match.

It turned out to be a goal that probably wasn’t on the scouting report.

West scored off of a corner kick from Prather in the 52nd minute to tie the game at one. Lordemann said it was just the second time this season the Spartans scored on a corner kick. Sophomore Laura Engel helped get the Spartans the kick, and Prather, going for the back angle, laid up a perfect ball for Hemmings to head in the goal in traffic.

That’s just what West needed, but something for which Lordemann is used to waiting.

“Much of the season we’ve started off slow,” Lordemann said. “But there was always something that set things off whether it was a girl getting knocked down or with a foul. This time it was a goal.”

That wasn’t the true turning point, though.

When players were yelling at players, and the Spartans came off the field not looking like themselves, Lordemann saw a different team than one that had just three losses the past two seasons.

“They came off the field as a group dejected and disappointed,” Lordemann said. “You could see it in their faces. We didn’t play well the first half and I just told them to settle down and enjoy playing.”

Calm and back in control, West scored again 16 minutes later. Forward Nikki Ahrendsen got a head on the ball and it landed to the left inside the box. Schweers was a few feet away and came up to drill it past the keeper.

Game notes

West keeper Jessalyn Payne came up with a big save with just more than 13 minutes to play and the game tied at one. Less than 10 feet in front of Payne, Broomfield’s Jenna Kaiser drilled a shot straight at the West keeper, but Payne was able to make the catch and keep the Eagles from going ahead.

Engel was given a yellow card for a collision with Broomfield’s Kira Brannan with less than 10 minutes remaining. Looking like Brannan was about to make contact with the ball, Engel went up in the air to try to block the shot, but ended up falling into Brannan and knocking her down. She had to be attended to by trainers and was helped off the field, but not before Engel made sure she was OK.

West senior Jen Thomas gave the Eagles a scare with 18 minutes to play when she broke away from the pack. It looked like West’s leading goal scorer would have Broomfield’s keeper one-on-one, but the keeper came out to challenge Thomas and was able to clear the ball before Thomas could threaten and give West its first lead.